Given that the Zanu-PF congress is highly tense, nervous and reluctant to tackle corruption, could this be the missing list of shame? It might help to reflect at the disability claims investigated by Judge Chidyausiku’s Commission in 1998.

Following is an unedited copy of an article found on the Zimbabwe Situation website. It was published on 31 October 2004. It is important to note that the figures for the amounts awarded as compensation had changed as of 31st October 2004, otherwise it also gives an idea of how Zimbabwe’s currency had lost value by then. The most important point, though, is how some of the Zanu-PF leaders handled the truth about their degrees of disability for their role in the liberation struggle and how corruption started in Zimbabwe.

“In view of the recently passed Ex-political Prisoners, Detainees and Restrictees Bill, it is instructive to re-examine some prominent War Victims and their Disability Claims and Payments, investigated by the Judge Chidyausiku Commission in 1998.

Note that the amounts paid should be multiplied by at least 417 to get the equivalent at today's [31 October 2004] rate of 7 500 - 1, assuming the amount was granted in 1998 at the rate of 18-1. If payment was made in 1980, you would probably have to multiply by around 10 000 - unfortunately that detail is not available in the Commission Report.

The full list of claims investigated appears in the Report, and was also published in both the Financial Gazette and Zimbabwe Independent in August 1998.

Clifford is a former diplomat, author, London based political analyst and a doctoral researcher at London South Bank University,
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